Surveillance cameras are an integral part of security solutions for protecting people, premises, and reducing risk. The surveillance cameras are often installed at egress points, at points of sale, and in other locations that require monitoring and tracking of people, goods, and services. Another common application is at casinos. The surveillance cameras are used to monitor employees and players.
Surveillance cameras typically include camera bases having mounting regions or portions for attaching the surveillance cameras to walls or ceilings within the premises. In one example, camera bases are mounted to walls via wall brackets. In another example, camera bases are mounted within ceilings in a recessed fashion similar to recessed lighting. The camera bases generally house electronics, network and video interfaces, and cooling fans for thermal management.
Surveillance cameras also have camera heads that are typically pointable in different directions using gimbal assemblies. Often the gimbal assemblies enable movement about at least two rotational axes (e.g., two-axis gimbal assembly or three-axis gimbal assembly). The two-axis gimbal assembly provides rotational movement about a pan axis and rotational movement about a tilt axis for the camera head. The three-axis gimbal assembly provides rotational movement about the pan axis, rotational movement about the tilt axis, and rotational movement about a roll axis for the camera head.
Two types of surveillance cameras include an adjustable surveillance camera and a motorized surveillance camera. The gimbal assembly of an adjustable surveillance camera is manually moved to different positions so that the camera head can be pointed down a hall or at a door, for example, usually during installation. The motorized surveillance camera, such as a pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) surveillance camera, utilizes a motorized gimbal assembly to automatically move the camera head to different positions usually under operator or automatic control (guard touring).
Adjustable and motorized surveillance cameras often include bubbles that cover the camera heads. The bubbles often have a hemispherical shape and function to protect camera heads from mechanical impact and conceal the positioning and movement of the gimbal assemblies. Typically, bubbles are permanently mounted to camera bases of adjustable and motorized surveillance cameras.
Some adjustable and motorized surveillance cameras are configured to receive bubble adapters. The bubble adapters are mounted and secured to the camera bases of compatible surveillance cameras. Bubble adapters can then be added to existing surveillance cameras on an “as-needed” basis.